Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody is co-leading a coalition of 24 state attorneys general in urging a federal court to reject special counsel Jack Smith’s request for a gag order in former President Donald Trump’s classified documents case.
The coalition, co-led by West Virginia and Iowa, wrote in the amicus brief that “for several reasons, the United States’ request is unjustified.”
“Once again, we are witnessing a prosecutor seek to keep the presumptive Republican nominee for President from speaking in the midst of an election,” Moody said. “The First Amendment, at its core, is designed to protect political speech, and I along with my colleagues will not stand idly by and watch the Biden administration trample the free speech of a Florida citizen.”
The coalition filed the amicus brief June 16 in the United States District Court Southern District of Florida West Palm Beach Division.
“President Trump is being gagged from discussing matters of importance with his constituents — and they are being prohibited from learning from those conversations about how President Trump proposes to lead,” the coalition wrote in the brief. “But in the end, a government may not ‘censor what the people hear as they undertake to decide for themselves which candidate is most likely to be an exemplary … officer.’”
West Virginia AG Patrick Morrisey agreed.
“This is not just about President Trump saying what he wants to say; it’s about protecting our constitutional right to free speech,” Morrisey said. “It’s obvious the other side is stopping at nothing to silence Biden’s political opponent, who is on track to be the next President of the United States.”
Other state AGs joining the amicus brief are Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah and Wyoming.
“Free and fair elections in the United States depend on candidates’ ability to speak about important issues of the day,” the coalition writes in its 27-page brief. “Attempts to stop a candidate from speaking out harm more than just the candidate. They also hurt the voters, who are denied access to crucial information, and the states, which are responsible for managing elections.
“And when agents of one candidate seek a court order to muzzle discussion on matters relating to important electoral issues, that restraint raises even more fundamental First Amendment concerns.”
Judge Aileen Cannon is scheduled to hear arguments over Smith’s request for a gag order limiting what Trump can say about law enforcement involved in the search of his Mar-a-Lago estate in August 2022.
Trump pleaded not guilty last June to a 37-count indictment related to his handling of classified materials, after prosecutors said he repeatedly refused to return hundreds of documents containing classified information ranging from U.S. nuclear secrets to the nation's defense capabilities. They say Trump also tried to impede the government's efforts to get the documents back.
In another case involving Trump and a gag order, The New York Court of Appeals on Tuesday declined to hear Trump’s gag order appeal in his hush money case.
The court, which is the state’s top court, left the restrictions in place following Trump’s felony conviction last month in the case involving payment to adult film actor Stormy Daniels.
In its June 18 ruling, the court said the gag order does not raise “substantial” constitutional issues that would warrant an immediate intervention.
Trump repeatedly has railed against a gag order that prevents him from commenting on witnesses, jurors and others who were involved in the hush money case. But Judge Juan M. Merchan, who oversaw the trial, is expected to rule soon on a Trump request to lift the gag order.
Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung said Trump’s legal team would “continue to fight against the unconstitutional gag order imposed by Justice Merchan.”